He joined Hearst Newspapers as Washington bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle in July 2007 after working for 15 years as White House correspondent, national political reporter and Washington Outlook editor for Business Week magazine. He previously spent 13 years as a Washington correspondent, Austin bureau reporter and city desk reporter for the Dallas Times Herald. A former president of the National Press Club, Rick is the creator and host of the reporters’ roundtable show From the National Press Club and the Hearst Newspapers podcast Washington Chronicles.

He is proud that his parents, Clarke and Barbara Dunham, are residents of upstate New York and own a small business in the Adirondacks.

Dan Freedman

Dan Freedman, the news editor of the Hearst Newspapers Washington bureau, has deep New York roots.

A native of New York City, he has covered six Supreme Court confirmations and wrote about major court opinions, as well as issues ranging from abortion to immigration to the wars on drugs and terror. He also covered the George W. Bush campaign in 2000 and headed a Hearst team in 2002 that produced a ground-breaking series on the USDA National School Lunch Program, which won awards from the National Press Club and the Association of Food Journalists.

His father, Alfred Freedman, is an Albany native (Albany High School, Class of ’33). His grandparents operated a grocery store on the corner of Dongan Avenue and Cherry Street, and later on Colvin Avenue.

About Capitol Confidential

Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.